When to start bedding plants?
Printer-friendly versionHi guys. Look forward to finding good stuff here on growing in a hobby greenhouse. I have a question, a bit premature as we are heading into winter, but I'm still curious. 2009 will be the first year I will starting my own bedding plants for Spring planting and I'm wondering when I should start seeds in order to have plants ready to put into the yard by April/May. Has anyone done this and do you know when I should start growing my own bedding plants?
I could not find what I was looking for on Dave's site.
I am looking at when I need to start plants in the greenhouse to have them ready to plant outdoors.
I guess I figure our average last frost date, then read the details on the seed package?
I was kind of looking for a chart-table...
If you can find a copy of the Harris Moran seed guide it will give you what you're looking for. I haven't found one online - but you might find a copy at a local university extension office (if you have one somewhere near).
What it will tell you for each variety (of seed) is how long you can expect from seeding to having a "sellable" plant (the size you'd expect to buy in a store and take home and plant) For instance a gallon tomato is listed as 10 to 12 weeks. You then back up from the expected last frost date at least that many weeks - and there is your seeding date.
The timing is based on optimum bottom heat (65 to 70 for tomato) during germination and "grow on" of 60 to 65 after transplanting to container.
An even better way to do this is start keeping detailed records of when you seed stuff. It may take a couple years but after a while you can have a seeding schedule (for your area). We've been keeping records in our local greenhouse for about 10 years on about 100 types of seed that we plant. Of course some of our data is based on diasters - the best learning tool.
btw - when you plant your starts in the garden be aware of the difference between "average" last frost and "expected" last frost. I find many climate web-sites that play pretty loose with the difference. Just remember that the average last frost date means that half the time there will be a frost after that date (on average). If your not using season extenders (like wall-o-waters) you can expect to lose your starts half the years. Expected last frost is usually based on a more statistical definition of the date (3 sigma I think).
I wrote a blog post that included some seed starting charts I compiled when working on our starter organic packages. It includes mainly information on vegetables and not flowers or other type plants, but I think it might be the type of information you're looking for.
To look at the pretty full color charts, check out the organic vegetable garden information package I came up with and posted in PDF format. The color definitely makes the otherwise black and white charts much easier to comprehend. Hope this helps!
You'll of course want to check when your last frost date is on average, because most of these type plants will not like the frost. If you plant them and it is expected to frost, you could always use a thermal plant blanket to protect them.
That said, it really just depends on the plants being started. You can allow anywhere from between 12 to 2 weeks for effective propagation. A great deal depends on the hardiness of the plant and it's germination time. Dave's Garden has quite an extensive guide that has all the information you could possibly ever need on just about every plant. I would check that for the necessary information for your specific plants and go from there.
Something to consider is having all the necessary propagating supplies ready, such as trays, inserts, soil, and perhaps a propagation mat and grow light.